UK Anti-Vaxxer’s Visit Alarms Medics in Croatia

The Faculty of Medicine in the Croatian city of Split expressed concern on Thursday over the expected arrival of British anti-vaccination campaigner Andrew Wakefield, describing his work as highly questionable.

"We are familiar with the work of the guest and we want to warn the public that a large part of his work was questionable, some of his findings and conclusions are clearly unfounded and his license for independent medical work was taken away," the faculty said in a press release.

Scientific journalists within the Croatian Journalists' Association also reacted with alarm on Thursday, recalling that the "consequences of Mr. Wakefield's work are the reappearance of measles epidemics in developed countries of the world", noticing that 82,000 people contracted measles and 72 died from the disease in 2018.

Last week, the Facebook fan page "Vaccination - a right of choice", which has around 12,700 followers, announced a "Peaceful gathering on the occasion of marking the International Vaccine Injury Awareness Day" that will take place in Split on July 8."

A few local doctors who are also concerned about vaccination effects will attend the gathering.

The organizers introduced Wakefield as "the doctor who lost his license because he dared to talk about vaccine victims" and claimed he enjoyed the "massive support of parents all around the world".

However, the leading Croatian fact-checking website, Faktograf, warned that Wakefield lost his license because he falsified findings in his piece from 1998, published in the well-known Lancet medical magazine, where he and 12 co-authors claimed that vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella were causing autism among children's autism.

An investigation published in 2010...